Heat treatment apparatus, heat treatment method, and storage medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016172218-A1
Application number	US-201514957985-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 3, 2015
Priority date	Dec 10, 2014
Publication date	Jun 16, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Disclosed is a heat treatment apparatus for performing a heat treatment on a coating film formed on a substrate. The apparatus includes a placing unit provided within a processing container, and configured to place the substrate thereon; a heating unit configured to heat the substrate placed on the placing unit; a gas supply port provided along a circumferential direction outside the substrate on the placing unit in a plan view, and configured to supply gas into the processing container; an outer circumferential exhaust port provided along the circumferential direction outside the substrate on the placing unit in a plan view, and configured to exhaust an inside of the processing container; and a central exhaust port provided above a central portion of the substrate on the placing unit, and configured to exhaust the inside of the processing container.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A heat treatment apparatus for performing a heat treatment on a coating film formed on a substrate, the apparatus comprising:
a placing unit provided within a processing container, and configured to place the substrate thereon; a heating unit configured to heat the substrate placed on the placing unit; a gas supply port provided along a circumferential direction outside the substrate on the placing unit in a plan view, and configured to supply gas into the processing container; an outer circumferential exhaust port provided along the circumferential direction outside the substrate on the placing unit in a plan view, and configured to exhaust an inside of the processing container; and a central exhaust port provided above a central portion of the substrate on the placing unit, and configured to exhaust the inside of the processing container.

2 . The heat treatment apparatus of claim 1 , wherein one of the gas supply port and the outer circumferential exhaust port is opened at a position higher than the substrate, while the other one is opened at a position lower than the substrate, and
an air flow curtain is formed to surround the substrate by an air flow flowing from the gas supply port to the outer circumferential exhaust port.

3 . The heat treatment apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the gas supply port includes a portion opened at a position lower than the substrate, and
the outer circumferential exhaust port includes a portion opened at a position higher than the substrate.

4 . The heat treatment apparatus of claim 2 , further comprising:
a shutter member configured to open/close a carry-in/out port that carries the substrate into/from the processing container, wherein the air flow curtain is formed closer to the substrate side than the shutter member.

5 . The heat treatment apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the exhaust is performed at least from the outer circumferential exhaust port until a setting time point when a setting time has elapsed from a heating start time of the substrate or a setting time point when a temperature of the substrate exceeds a setting temperature, and the exhaust is performed at least from the central exhaust port after the setting time point.

6 . The heat treatment apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the exhaust is performed by the outer circumferential exhaust port and the central exhaust port at the same time at least from the heating start time of the substrate to the setting time point.

7 . The heat treatment apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the exhaust is performed by the outer circumferential exhaust port and the central exhaust port at the same time at least after the setting time point.

8 . The heat treatment apparatus of claim 5 , wherein an exhaust amount of the central exhaust port is larger than an exhaust amount of the outer circumferential exhaust port at least after the setting time point.

9 . The heat treatment apparatus of claim 5 , wherein at least one of the exhaust of the outer circumferential exhaust port and the exhaust of the central exhaust port is performed such that the exhaust amount increases or decreases with the lapse of time.

10 . The heat treatment apparatus of claim 5 , wherein a crosslinking agent is contained in the coating film, and
the setting time point is a time point when a crosslinking reaction by the crosslinking agent is completed.

11 . The heat treatment apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:
an ejector connected to the central exhaust port through an exhaust path such that an exhaust flow is attracted by flow of a suction gas; and a supply/stop mechanism configured to perform supply of the suction gas to the ejector or stop of the supply.

12 . The heat treatment apparatus of claim 11 , further comprising:
a mechanism for heating the suction gas.

13 . The heat treatment apparatus of claim 11 , wherein a discharge side of the ejector is connected to a downstream side exhaust path where exhaust is performed by an exhausting power usage,
a dummy ejector is provided such that its discharge side is connected to the downstream side exhaust path, and is configured to attract an atmosphere outside a flow path of the exhaust flow by the flow of the suction gas, and when the supply of the suction gas is stopped by the supply/stop mechanism, the suction gas flows to the dummy ejector.

14 . The heat treatment apparatus of claim 11 , wherein a pressure loss portion is provided between the central exhaust port and the ejector that attracts the exhaust flow, to suppress the exhaust from the central exhaust port when the supply of the suction gas is stopped in order to stop the attraction of the exhaust flow.

15 . A heat treatment method for performing a heat treatment on a coating film formed on a substrate, the method comprising:
placing the substrate on a placing unit provided in a processing container, and heating the substrate; exhausting an inside of the processing container at least from an outer circumferential exhaust port provided along a circumferential direction outside the substrate on the placing unit in a plan view, while introducing gas from a gas supply port provided along the circumferential direction outside the substrate on the placing unit in a plan view, into the processing container, until a setting time point when a setting time has elapsed from a heating start time of the substrate or a setting time point when a temperature of the substrate exceeds a setting temperature; and exhausting the inside of the processing container at least from a central exhaust port provided above a central portion of the substrate on the placing unit, while introducing gas from the gas supply port into the processing container, after the setting time point.

16 . The heat treatment method of claim 15 , wherein an air flow curtain directed from one of a position higher than the substrate and a position lower than the substrate toward the other one is formed by the exhaust of the outer circumferential exhaust port to surround the substrate.

17 . The heat treatment method of claim 15 , wherein the exhaust is performed by the outer circumferential exhaust port and the central exhaust port at the same time at least from the heating start time of the substrate to the setting time point.

18 . The heat treatment method of claim 15 , wherein the exhaust is performed by the outer circumferential exhaust port and the central exhaust port at the same time at least after the setting time point.

19 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium stored with a computer program for use in an apparatus in which a substrate including a coating film formed thereon is placed on a placing unit in a processing container and the coating film is subjected to a heat treatment,
wherein the computer program includes a step group organized to, when executed, cause a computer to execute the heat treatment method of claim 15 .

Assignees

• Tokyo Electron Ltd

Inventors

• Mizuta Masato
• Kawaji Tatsuya
• Nakano Keigo

Classifications

• H10P14/6902

  composed of carbon, e.g. alpha-C, diamond or hydrogen doped carbon · CPC title

• H10P14/6516

  of treatments performed after formation of the materials · CPC title

• H10P14/6342

  Liquid deposition, e.g. spin-coating, sol-gel techniques or spray coating · CPC title

• H10P72/0462

  characterised by the construction of the processing chambers, e.g. modular processing chambers · CPC title

• H10P72/0432

  mainly by conduction · CPC title